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VILLA 1 LIVERPOOL 2

15.20 Briefly impressive for Villa, who were good value for their half-time lead. More impressive for Liverpool and Brendan Rodgers, who had a collective word with themself at the break and came out to dominate until leading, then killed the game off with aplomb. They're beginning to look like a really quite-good team at times. Villa stay in the relegation zone. It increasingly looks like one of them, Wigan or sunderland as the realistic contenders to join surely-doomed QPR and West Ham. Liverpool consolidate in seventh. Thanks for your company, I'll talk to you again soon.

FULL TIME

90+3 min Benteke scores for Villa... Except he's offside. So it doesn't count. I'm afraid that's how it works. No question about that, unfortunately for Villa.

90+1 min Three minutes of added time for Villa to rescue this match and for Liverpool to do a lot of passing.

87 min Villa, entirely off the boil now, at least have the ball in the correct position. That's the Liverpool half, football novices. But the passing and movement that briefly had them running rings around Liverpool in the first half has more or less deserted them now, and a goal looks a distant dream for the home side.

84 min Suarez somehow manages to beat around five Villa players with a purposeful run from the left, and looks to have rounded Guzan too, but the keeper gets a slight touch on the ball which slightly halts his momentum. Suarez still manages to shoot, attempting to lob the advanced Villa keeper, but it's not high enough and held by Guzan.

82 min N'Zogbia delivers a better corner than Villa have generally managed so far today, but it's too high for Baker and out for a throw on the other side.

81 min Downing has a silly shot from a free kick on the right. Well over. Here's another picture of Jordan Henderson celebrating, because I like it:

79 min Some promising early trickery from Sterling, who beats Lowton with a fair amount of ease on the left-hand side before attempting to find Suarez with a quick cross. Guzan's got it covered.

77 min It's a sub for Villa. Sylla, pretty good today, is replaced by El Ahmadi. Coutinho also coming off after a good game, he's replaced by Raheem Sterling.

73 min The sting has gone out of Villa like so many soon-to-be-dead bees. Liverpool re-asserting themselves in the fine Brendan Rodgers tradition as a team that are really good at playing passes to one-another in meaningless areas of the pitch. That'll do nicely for them, although I still feel like they might need another goal.

69 min Reina tips a mishit cross over his bar for a Villa corner. It's not the best, but Villa hang onto it. Some spirited signs of recovery from Villa now.

68 min Bennett limping off for some treatment after hurting his knee some. He's back on reasonably quickly/ Here's Jordan Henderson doing some extravagant celebrating after his goal:

65 min Villa have a corner after Delph's shot was deflected behind by Suarez. And it's off the line! Marvellous header by Gerrard! Did fantastically to avoid heading Benteke's attempt into his own net. Leads to another corner, but Liverpool get rid this time.

64 min A somewhat unsurprising stat from our friends at Opta:

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: OptaJoe - 5 - Luis Suarez has won more penalties than any other Premier League player this season. Tricky.&lt;/noframe&gt;

And here are the words of your friend and mine Marc Melander:

Delightful finish by Henderson. Perhaps a hint that beneath the appearance of a jobbing hod-carrier there lurks a half-decent footballer. Coutinho is quality - sublime vision and the touch of an artisan.

63 min Weimann firest just over! That should have been 2-2! He's found in far too much space just shy of the six yard box, but the ball's slightly behind him, he's leaning back and it's over. He's substituted moments later, N'Zogbia replacing him. And it's also Delph on for Bannan for Villas.

60 min GOAL!! Aston Villa 1 Liverpool 2 (Gerrard) Gerrard targets the bottom left corner. Guzan guesses right but it's too well-placed for him to reach it and Liverpool have a lead that has looked inevitable since Henderson equalised.

59 min PENALTY TO LIVERPOOL Baker slides in blatantly on Suarez after a neat cut-back. Clear as a particularly cloudless day.

58 min Liverpool hit the post! Johnson hits one from the right. A slight deflection, Guzan beaten, but it's back off the upright.

55 min Big miss by Coutinho! Villa horribly exposed again and Coutinho's put through and in behind from a Suarez through ball. Only Guzan to beat, and he's baring down on goal from the right. He takes aim and targets the bottom corner on the far side but drags it mildly wide. Alas.

54 min Villa wearing their shell-shocked shell-suits, this is a big test for them now. It's gone from GCSE English Literature to an A-Level in physics. Here's some top keeper-celebrating from Brad Guzan, presumably after Benteke's goal rather than Henderson's:

51 min Gah, that's the inverse of Coutinho's awareness from Agbonlahor, who opts to shoot over from 25 yards rather than playing in Sylla, who's in several acres of space to his right. Woeful decision.

50 min I've just been passed an inappropriately large piece of paper which tells me that Villa have given away the most points from winning positions in the last two Premier League seasons. I was also informed during half time that Liverpool have yet to turn a half-time deficit into a win in 2012/13. I suppose that means the score we have now will be the score we have in 40 minutes time.

47 min GOAL!! Aston Villa 1 Liverpool 1 (Henderson) That's marvellous from Liverpool. A clearance is deflected fortuitously to Coutinho on the left but there's still plenty to do as he controls it 40 yards from goal. Henderson's sprinting through an exposed central portion of the field and Coutinho spots him, then plays a perfect through ball ahead of him. Henderson's only got Guzan to beat, which he does with panache, putting a forceful chip over the keeper and into the back of the net.

46 min Oh hi, second half. Do you come here often?

14.17 Not bad at all from Villa. Benteke is a marvellous beast of a striker. Agbonlahor looking good, and there's been a pleasing side order of defensive commitment in there too. Liverpool have failed to get going, other than between approx minutes five and 15. You feel they'll score. But you wouldn't rule out Villa also scoring some more. But perhaps neither will? That's football. See you in 15.

HALF TIME

45+1 min There will be just one added minute of added time. I'm all for this.

43 min Liverpool applying some pressure as the half erodes into nothingness. Gerrard smacks one from 30 yards out from goal on the left-hand side. Firm punch by Guzan. Villa could sure go for some cut-up oranges right about now.

41 min Let off for Villa! Bannan gives it away for cheaper than a reduced chocolate egg will cost next week and unfortunately for him it's Luis Suarez who siezes on it and races into shooting position inside the area. Fortunately for Bannan, and Villa, Guzan saves well with his legs and there's no-one up with play to deal with the rebound, which rolls across the six yard box.

38 min Here's Benteke's goal, from behind the goal, from the lovable kingdom of anitmated .gifdom:

37 min Guzan has a chance to slow the pace right down after a miscued pass forward. Villa could do with a pleasant eight minutes of keep-ball here. Suarez has a go from roughly 200 yards, with Guzan slightly off his line. Well wide. More from our close personal friends with all the numbers Opta:

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: OptaJoe - 9 - Christian Benteke has scored nine goals in his last 11 Premier League appearances, and now has three vs Liverpool this season. Hot.&lt;/noframe&gt;

35 min Villa clear their lines but Liverpool soon get it back upfield, to Suarez, who is increasingly drifting out to the right. He miscontrols, and Villa get it away more convincingly this time.

34 min Great tackle by Baker! Gerrard zipped into the box from a clever Suarez lay-off on the edge, but Baker threw himself in at the last at the expense of a corner. It leads immediately to another.

31 min GOAL!! Aston Villa 1 Liverpool 0 (Benteke) Marvellous work by the Villa forwards. Agbonlahor taps a hopeful long ball back artfully on the volley to his Beligan buddy, and Benteke hammers it first time past Reina. Wonderful finish. It had been coming.

30 min Villa doing well from free kicks, with our man Alan Smith, commentating for Sky, noting that their tactic of leaving two men offside is confusing Liverpool The latest brings about a corner, but Villa look a lot less potent from them than free kicks, and it's duly headed clear.

28 min The game's crying out to be taken by the scruff of the neck by Villa, who are increasingly finding routes around Liverpool at a speed that Brendan Rodgers' side can't deal with. It's yet to lead to a proper opening for the home side though, with Agbonlahor screwing an optimistic shot from range wide.

26 min The game has swung back in Aston Villa's favour, but Liverpool still look as dangerous on the break as you'd expect from a team that features Luis Suarez. He's played in with another tasty pass by Coutinho from the left but Baker does enough just behind him to put him off his stride and Suarez puts it wide.

24 min Here are party guys Ron Vlaar and Luis Suarez engaged in one of their infamous face-pulling contests:

22 min Ron Vlaar, as ever, not inspiring a tremendous amount of confidence this afternoon. A part of my heart arrives in my mouth as he elects to dribble it out from the back, despite being under pressure from Coutinho and Villa's last defender. It doesn't end in disaster. This time.

20 min Suarez shoots smartly from just inside the area. Guzan tips it over. Then claims Gerrard's corner with authority.

19 min Jamie Carragher was all over Benteke just now as the two prepared to deal with a Villa free kick. He had a handful and a half of his shirt, but it was unpunished. At the other end Coutinho is inches away from connecting with a Downing cross which Vlaar couldn't reach.

16 min Panic in the Liverpool Box! Great save, Reina! Free kick causes problems, then Agbonlahor has a close-range shot which is straight at the keeper... I might take back that "great save," actually, Agbonlahor should have done better from an excellent pass from Lowton from the right.

14 min The corner is..... ..... ..... out for a goal kick. Hmmm.

13 min Nothing doing that time, Vlaar heads away and Villa attempt to break, but Liverpool are back in numbers. Still, it's a corner to home side now.

12 min Angry Brummie count at Villa Park has been raised by several thousand since the beginning of the game. Crowd beginning to audibly demonstrate their frustration about their increasingly under-pressure side. It's a Liverpool corner.

8 min Rubbish from Vlaar, who miscues a simple clearance after Coutinho played a clever ball forward to Suarez which the Uruguayan failed to read. It's a corner to Liverpool as a result. Away side beginning to look dangerous, but there's little immediate danger from the set piece, with Suarez firing over from the edge of the box.

7 min Liverpool still passing it around with buzz-killing proficiency. All quite tidy, but there's a sense they're going to need to up their work rate and invention against a Villa side that are patently more up for it than them.

4 min Villa go close! Wonderful hold-up play from Benteke, who brings down a high ball and holds off two Liverpool men before playing a simple bass back to Westwood. He pings it out to the left where Bennett has made a bold run from left-back. Benteke so close to connecting to Bennett's cross with his head, and Agbonlahor, just behind him, couldn't quite react in time.

3 min Villa have attempted to start in a bustling all-action style. Liverpool are having none of it, taking the sting out of the game every time they get the ball. Award-winner eggstrodanaire Oliver Brown is at Villa Park for us today, and also finds it hard to resist dubious Easter-related puns:

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Chris Bascombe - In interests of balance, would be splendid if occasionally mentioned Rosenthal's 7 goals in last 8 games won &lt;a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=lfc" target="_blank"&gt;#lfc&lt;/a&gt;'s last title &lt;a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=itbobbled" target="_blank"&gt;#itbobbled&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/noframe&gt;

13.15 It's time for the first pertinent statistical tweet of Easter Sunday 2013 from our friends at Opta:

Some fixtures have meaning because the teams involved hate one another. Others are important because of their context in a competition. Others still offer romance because of the varying backstories and fortunes of two clubs.

Some, though, are only memorable for one moment.

Say Aston VillavLiverpool to someone of the correct age-range and, after a blank look prompted by what an odd thing "Aston Villa v Liverpool" is to say in and of itself, you'll only hear two words in reply:

Ronnie Rosenthal.

And from a different angle:

...and what the hell, one more time:

Sure, there's plenty more at stake today than thinking about a shot that hit the bar in 1992. But for the purposes of this intro, let's just think about Ronnie:

I'm hoping for Liverpool in a green change strip and Aston Villa giving it a proper go in an attempt to climb away from the Sunderland-scented mess at the bottom of the table.

And lots and lots of clips of Israeli footballers failing to score in open goals.

Team news to follow, why not pass the time until then by reading this lovely preview:

The pair missed the defeat at Southampton almost a fortnight ago with calf and shin injuries respectively but have subsequently recovered.

All players have returned from international duty without reporting any problems but Fabio Borini and Joe Allen and Martin Kelly remain absent.

Match Notes Brendan Rodgers' Liverpool remake is gradually showing signs of progress but it may still come too late to end their painful exile from the Champions League.

The dreadful performance at Southampton apart, Liverpool's recent charge up the table has provided Rodgers with cause for optimism and Sunday's trip to Villa Park represents another opportunity to convince the likes of Luis Suárez there is something worth sticking around for.

Paul Lambert has a more humble target this season but his mission of Premier League survival appears set to be accomplished after two morale-boosting victories in a row.

Betting: Home 16-5, Away 4-6, Draw 5-2.

Stat of the game: If Villa win they will be able to claim their first home and away double over Liverpool for 20 years.